1. Field of the Invention
The invention is based on a washing machine with a perforated drum being intermittently driven in alternating rotary directions during washing and/or rinsing (so-called reversing mode).
Such a washing machine is known from German Published, Non-Prosecuted Disclosure DE 37 41 177 A. In that publication, the laundry is shifted in reversing fashion inside the drum during the washing and rinsing cycle at a typical drum rpm of 55 1/min, for instance. During the times when the drum is at a stop, the detergent solution seeps slowly through the laundry in the direction of gravity before the laundry is restratified in the next phase of operation. At the times when the drum is stopped, the level of the washing solution that is not contained in the laundry, which is largely reabsorbed by the laundry during the phases of operation of the drum, therefore rises in the washing solution container. The level of available washing solution therefore drops again during the phases of operation.
In order to make the flow of the washing solution through the laundry more intensive, so-called wash-spin phases are incorporated in the known washing machine, during which the drum is accelerated from a standstill to an rpm of approximately 300 1/min so that a large proportion of the detergent can be largely spun out. The level of available detergent in the washing solution container then rises even further.
Due to the acceleration of the drum beyond the resonant rpm, which may be at about 120 1/min, the swingingly suspended washing solution container assembly is often extremely heavily loaded during the washing and rinsing cycle. This extreme load is due to the fact that the drum must always be accelerated from a state in which there is a high washing solution level with completely soaked laundry. The loads apply on one hand to the drive (motor, gears) and on the other hand, during the resonant transition, to the washing solution container assembly and its suspension. Due to the resultant extremely major deflections of the washing solution container assembly, a larger swing space must also be provided in the washing machine, so that this assembly will not strike parts of the housing during the resonant transition. On the other hand, if wash-spin phases are only occasionally activated, more-intensive expulsion of the washing solution from the laundry is necessary, at a higher rpm.